Meet Radhika Mehta, smart, beautiful, rich, and a general Mary Sue. She’s an Indian girl who is opinionated, has slept around, and makes a ton of money, so on cue, you’re supposed to hate her, or so she says in the very first few lines of the book. Of course, because she’s this quintessential overachiever, she never really believes that she is beautiful, no matter who tells her, and how many ever times they tell her. What did I say? She reeks of Mary Sue-ness. She’s getting married to Brijesh; it’s an arranged marriage. But because she is so rich, of course, she’s paying for the wedding herself. All one crore rupees of it. Or, you know, 150, 000 dollars of it.
Of course, like any CB novel, the protagonist here looks at arranged marriages with much disdain. Now, I’m not one for arranged marriages myself, which is why I wouldn’t agree to one and leave my husband-to-be at the altar. I wouldn’t spend half the book bitching about it either. I have one question to ask Mr. Bhagat, though. Pray, tell me sir, what did your mother do to you? Why must you paint Punjabi mothers in such a regressive, conservative manner? What kind of a mother says, "hey, kid, I’m not proud of your achievements because you earn a ton of money and now no man will marry you?" No mother that I know of for sure. Every Punjabi mother that CB depicts is such a stereotype, it hurts my brain to read it. Chetan Bhagat does not know the meaning of "likable protagonists". Here’s what he does: he makes his characters smart and "unattractive" and opinionated. These opinions are supposed to make the other characters hate or dislike or be in awe of the protagonist, and make the "educated Indian youth" find them appealing and endearing. The fact of the matter is that it does not work at all. I hated Radhika Mehta with such burning passion, were I to meet her in real life, I would slap her. ??
Over all it’s a imaginative!